1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a technological field of a wiper arm in a wiper device for wiping a window surface of a vehicle, such as a passenger car, a bus, or a truck.
2. Description of Related Art
In general, some of this type of wiper devices have a link pivotally coupled to an arm support, which constitutes a wiper arm, as disclosed in, for example, JP-A-10-507143, in order to secure a largest possible area that can be wiped by a blade. Such a wiper device is required to have a waterproof structure to ensure a smooth circular motion of a portion, where the link is pivotally coupled to the arm support, and also to provide protection against abnormal wear or corrosion. For this purpose, it has been proposed to provide the arm support with a cover to cover the link portion where the link is pivotally coupled (hereinafter referred simply as xe2x80x9cthe link coupling portionxe2x80x9d.
When the wiper arm moves to an upper reversal position, rainwater wiped by a blade is pushed together with the blade toward the upper reversal position and drops along the blade. The dropping rainwater flows further toward the arm support as the wiper arm further approaches the upper reversal position. As a result, the arm support is subjected to the rainwater that runs along the blade to a distal end of the wiper arm, namely, an arm piece, and the rainwater enters the cover to reach the link coupling portion, presenting a problem of adversely affecting durability or the like of the link coupling portion. A solution to this problem has been an object of the present invention. Furthermore, in a wiper device wherein a wider cover is attached to the arm support, there has been a problem in that the cover is prone to flex in a direction orthogonal to the arm support and come off. A solution to this problem has been another object of the present invention.
Accordingly, the present invention has been created with a view toward solving the problems described above.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a wiper device having an arm support constituting a wiper arm and a cover that covers the arm support partly or entirely, wherein at least one of the arm support and the cover is provided with a guiding means for guiding water that has entered between the arm support and the cover.
Thus, water running on a surface of the arm support can be positively drained to outside.
In the arm support according to the present invention, the link for the wiper arm to perform a wiping swing motion can be pivotally connected, and the guiding means can be constructed by at least one of a guiding passage for guiding water on the front surface of the arm support to avoid the link coupling portion, and a dripping guide member that guides the water on the front surface of the arm support to a rear surface thereof, thus making it possible to protect the link coupling portion from water.
The dripping guide member in accordance with the present invention can be formed as a locking member for locking the cover onto the arm support. This arrangement obviates the need for providing a separate dripping guide member, permitting improved versatility of a member.
Furthermore, a plurality of the dripping guide members in accordance with the present invention can be formed, avoiding the link coupling portion.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a wiper device equipped with an arm support making up a wiper arm, and a cover that covers the arm support partly or entirely, wherein the arm support has a protuberance formed so that it protrudes sideways with respect to the arm support from a side edge of the arm support. This arrangement makes it possible to construct a cover that does not easily flex in a direction orthogonal to a lengthwise direction of the arm support, to provide the protuberance with a function for preventing the cover from falling off, and to also allow the protuberance itself to serve as a dripping guide passage for water reaching the protuberance.